Work Retreats on Sumner Evans

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Work Retreat

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 09:25:00 -0600

This week, Beeper had our second meetup after being acquired by Automattic earlier this year. Unlike the last retreat in Porto which had lots of other Automattic employees in attendance, this was just our team and was focused on work and planning less than team-building.

Automattic is a remote-only company, so work retreats are the only time that we can connect with our co-workers in-person and build stronger personal relationships among the team. The best part is that we get to go to cool locations for these meetups. You can read about all the previous work retreats on this blog.

Porto, Portugal - Work Retreat

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:25:00 -0600

The past few weeks have been exciting for Beeper. We made Beeper available to everyone without a waitlist, launched a new Android app based on our own internally-built Matrix SDK written in Go, and were acquired by Automattic for $125M. As part of the acquisition, the Beeper team is merging with the Texts.com team that was acquired by Automattic last year. We are going to unify the products under the Beeper brand. All of this is only a few months on the heels of our Beeper Mini launch which brought fully end-to-end encrypted iMessage to Android devices.

Toronto, Canada - Work Retreat

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 06:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our fall work retreat in Toronto, Canada. It has been nearly six months since our March retreat in Amsterdam and it was great to see everyone again and meet some of the new team members. I have also written about our four retreats prior to Amsterdam on this blog.

One of the main goals of each retreat is to provide opportunities to connect as a team on a personal level. There were three new team members present at this retreat.

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Work Retreat

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 09:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our first retreat of the new year in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We aim for about three retreats a year, though due to holidays and a recent push towards our beta exit milestone, it has been a little while since we have all gotten together. The last retreat was in Mexico City in October and before that we had three other retreats. The goal of each retreat is to provide an opportunity to connect as a team on a personal level, discuss future plans, and reflect on the progress we have made.

Mexico City, Mexico - Work Retreat

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 09:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our Fall retreat in in Mexico City, Mexico. We have company retreats about once every four months and this was our fourth. Similar to all the previous retreats, the goal was to provide valuable in-person time to collaborate and connect as a team on a personal level. I was able to meet a couple people who had joined the company since the last retreat and reconnect with many coworkers that I’d met during previous retreats.

Ericeira, Portugal - Work Retreat

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

I spent the first week of my trip at a Beeper company retreat in Ericeira, Portugal: a town about an hour northwest of Lisbon. We were staying at an event venue called Alma do Paço. The goal of all of the work retreats is to allow the team to have a week of focused collaboration. We tried to take advantage of having all of the teams together by working on some cross-team projects. We also try to have whole-team meetings such as retrospectives, planning and brainstorming discussions, and other meetings. The retreats are also our main opportunity to meet coworkers in-person and are great times to build relationships. I find that meeting people in person is extremely helpful for making the online interactions feel personal.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico - Work Retreat

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 09:25:00 -0600

A couple weeks ago, my company had our week-long 2022 Q1 work retreat in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (about an hour south of Cancun). As with the previous work trip, the purpose of the retreat was for us to get to work together in person and to bond as a team. I got to see many of the people who were in Montreal again, and got to meet some of the new team members who have joined the company since September.

Montreal - Work Trip!

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

As I mentioned in my previous post, the main reason for my travel was a work retreat with Beeper in Montreal. The purpose of the retreat was for all of us to get to work together in person. For most of us (myself included), it was the first time meeting anyone else on the team in person. In fact, the closest person to me in the company lives in Provo, Utah.